The Epson Perfection 2400 Photo ($230) is a well-built, well-rounded device that consistently delivers good performance and quality scans. Although the 2400 doesn't have many bells or whistles, it's a good choice for users who don't want to be bothered with scanning minutiae.

On the front of the 2400 are one large elliptical button (start) and three small round buttons (copy, e-mail, and share-to-Web). On the underside of the lid is a white-backed plastic plate that snaps out to expose a translucent strip, used to scan negatives and transparencies. Bundled with the unit are Adobe Photoshop Elements 1.1, Presto!'s OCR software, and Epson's own Twain driver and Smart Panel software.

Using the one-touch scan button may be easy in theory, but in practice it launches you into a tedious multistep workflow process, with steps labeled Scan, Verify, and Launch. The Smart Panel interface lets you select the type of original, the scan's destination, and other parameters, but we found that properly configuring such options was frustrating and not at all intuitive.

Those who want more extensive and precise control of the output can toggle into Epson's Twain driver. In fact, when set to auto, the driver delivers nearly one-touch operation.

On our tests with our 5-by-7 test photo, the 2400 averaged a quick 6 seconds to preview, and 15 seconds to scan in full color at 300 ppi. The 2400 produced images that were sharp and clean, with bright and appealing colors. But the scanner clipped both highlights and shadows on our black-and-white photo test.

Sally Wiener Grotta is a contributing editor of PC Magazine, a professional photographer, a digital artist, and an early pioneer in computer graphics. She has coauthored several books with Daniel Grotta, including The Illustrated Digital Imaging Dictionary (McGraw-Hill). Her expertise extends to digital cameras, scanners, printers, imaging and illustration software, Web graphics and authoring, 3-D graphics, and even biometrics.
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